Two leading Dallas hospitals have changed how they manage care for transgender youth, removing all references to a pioneering care program from a website.
Health care previously provided through the Genecis program will now be managed and coordinated through different specialty departments at Children’s Health and the UT Southwestern Medical Center.
Genecis — which stands for Gender Education and Care, Interdisciplinary Support — is a highly acclaimed 7-year-old program created by the hospitals to provide transgender and gender-diverse youth with health care, including mental health counseling and hormone therapy.
Children’s Health and UTSW declined Friday to answer questions about the decision to remove the Genecis branding, citing patient privacy concerns. They did not respond to questions about why it was removed now.
New patients will be seen in the appropriate specialty departments, and coordination of care continues to be available, including support from social work, they said.
“We do not anticipate any interruption of care or services for our existing patients who already receive care with these specialty teams,” Children’s and UTSW said in a joint prepared statement. “The choice to remove branding for this care offers a more private, insulated experience for patients and their families.”
Screenshots of the Children’s Health website from early September show a link to the gender-affirming care program and an entire page dedicated to Genecis. A screenshot of the same website taken Friday shows the link and page no longer exist.
As of Friday, there are also no search results for the words “gender affirming” or “transgender.”
“We accept new patients for diagnosis, including evaluation of gender dysphoria, but will not initiate patients on hormone or puberty suppression therapy for only this diagnosis,” Children’s Health and UTSW said.
Changes to Genecis are raising concerns for at least one family of a child receiving care through the program, who worry this may lead to it being shuttered altogether.
“I’m concerned that this is just the first step,” said Amber Briggle, a North Texas mother who invited Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to a family dinner in 2016 with her transgender son.
Briggle’s son, who started socially transitioning in first grade, began participating in the social and mental well-being and educational aspects of the program long before he went through puberty.
It’s not clear why the hospitals changed how care is managed and coordinated. It comes just months after a legislative session in which Republican lawmakers focused intense attention on transgender children. They passed a new law banning trans student-athletes from playing on teams that match their gender identity, and filed other bills that would have blocked transgender Texans’ ability to access to health care.
Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican running for reelection next year, also asked the state family services agency to determine whether providing gender-affirming care to a trans minor was tantamount to “child abuse.” Abbott faces challenges from fellow Republicans who have also put transgender rights in their sights.
After outcry from gubernatorial hopeful Don Huffines, a former state senator, the state health department removed a webpage with suicide hotline information for LGBTQ youth. Former Texas Republican Party Chair Allen West supported past efforts to bar transgender Texans from restrooms that match their gender identity.
LGBTQ rights organizations largely consider gender-affirming care, including the use of hormone blockers and other medical procedures for transitioning individuals, to be critical in preventing transgender and nonbinary people from experiencing negative side effects of gender dysphoria, which can include anxiety, depression and eating disorders.
Transgender and nonbinary youth experience anxiety and depression at much higher rates than their peers. More than half of transgender youth reported considering suicide in the past year, according a 2021 national survey by the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention organization for LGBTQ youth.
Texas has one of the largest populations of youth who identify as transgender in the country, with 13,800 ages 13 to 17, according to a 2017 report from the UCLA Williams Institute.
Ricardo Martinez, CEO of the LGBTQ rights organization Equality Texas, said doctors should be free to provide the health care their patients want and need.
“It’s heartbreaking that affirming providers who are trying to uphold their Hippocratic oath to save lives and provide established standards of care supported by all major medical associations are experiencing harassment,” he told The Dallas Morning News in a statement.
It is unclear what type of harassment Martinez was referring to.
Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican who spearheaded the 2019 transgender bathroom bill effort, did not respond to request for comment late Friday.
The Genecis program is unique because it offers coordinated care for people under the age of 18 across multiple specialties, including endocrinology, psychiatry and social work. Approaching the care of gender diverse people from multiple disciplines can be crucial, as gender dysphoria can negatively impact both physical and mental well-being.
Patients travel from hundreds of miles away from North Texas to access its services. The launch of Genecis was mentioned in publications across the country, including Cosmopolitan Magazine, which featured Dr. Ximena Lopez, the physician who started the program. Lopez could not be reached Friday for comment.
“We had heard that it was a difficult program to get into because the need was so great and there were so few providers trained in this type of care,” Briggle said. “Our thought was, let’s get him in this program before he starts puberty so when puberty starts, we don’t have to be on a waitlist.”
